Officials try to allay fears of oil-spoiled seafood

With thousands of out-of-towners coming and going this weekend for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and thousands of gallons of oil washing up on Louisiana’s coast, Louisiana Restaurant Association spokeswoman Wendy Waren said she’s considering putting a public announcement at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport assuring visitors that the state’s seafood is still safe to eat.

“We’re working right now on reaching out to the Jazz and Heritage festival and the airport and any entry point for visitors to say the seafood is safe,” Waren said.

That plan, along with any other outreach efforts she can think of, will hopefully defray the negative images — being splashed across national news as the visitors arrive and depart — of oil seeping toward Louisiana’s coast.

The oil leak began after a rig exploded and collapsed off Louisiana’s coast last week. So far, crews have been unable to stop the flow of thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Waren and seafood dealers agree that a large bit of stock will not be affected by the petroleum leak, at least not in the immediate future. The latest path of the massive slick had it washing up on the east side of the Mississippi Delta. That leaves the entire central and western coast at least temporarily out of harm’s way.

But once Jazz Fest-goers are reassured, Louisiana still has the busy May tourist season followed by the inaugural New Orleans Oyster Festival June 5-6 and the Louisiana Seafood Festival later the same month.

“May is a really busy month for the hospitality industry, so we really need to be diligent,” Waren said.
Seafood harvesters, distributors and restaurateurs are all concerned.

“That is a prime area that’s under the gun,” Drago’s Seafood Restaurant owner Tommy Cvitanovich said of the Pontchartrain Basin, an area expected to soon be affected by the oil leak.

“If nothing else, this is going to increase demand and increase the price,” Cvitanovich added.

Oysters make up about 75 percent of sales at Casemento’s Restaurant in New Orleans, where owner C.J. Gerdes says he tries to source exclusively from Louisiana.

“Anytime we have to go elsewhere you never know what you’re getting,” he said of oysters. “You could have monster oysters. You could have bitty peanuts.”

“With Louisiana you always know what you’re getting.”

Louisiana easily led in production of oysters for the Gulf region, where 67 percent of the country’s haul comes from. Louisiana harvested 12.8 million pounds of oysters in 2008, with a dockside value of $38.8 million, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report showing the economic significance of the region’s fisheries.

It was followed by Texas at 2.7 million pounds for $8.83 million and Mississippi at 2.6 million pounds for $6.87 million.

Gerdes said at the moment, however, he’s especially concerned with softshell crabs, which have come into season late this year and have been a popular draw for tourists.

“During a regular day we will sell a couple dozen softshells,” he said. “Now that Jazz Fest is here … we quadrupled our softshell crab business here. It’s incredible.”

“I’ve been buying every softshell I can get my hands on,” he added.

The already-battered shrimp industry is also an area of concern.

“The economic impact of the oil spill on shrimp could be extensive,” the NOAA report says. The Gulf region produced 73 percent of the nation’s shrimp at 188.3 pounds in 2008. Louisiana is at the forefront of all shrimp-producing states in the U.S. with 89 million pounds harvested in 2008 for a dockside value of $130.6 million. It was followed by Texas at 63.8 million pounds for $157.2 million and Alabama at 17 million pounds for $38.4 million.

“At this point we have potential for mild impact,” said Mike Voisin, owner of Motivatit Seafood, an oyster-processing and -farming company in Houma.

“If they can’t get it stopped, it could be catastrophic.”

Still, Voisin said that if the slick does shift west of the river, the currents from the river will push more water into the oil and the impact to other areas of the coast, he hopes, will be much less significant.

“Mother nature’s pretty impressive,” he said, adding. “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”•